TBA
Fooding
All'Antico Vinaio, the Italian sandwich shop expanding in the USA the past few months (maybe a year?) does indeed live up to their reputation, although there's a few caveats. One is, at least on weekends, show up right when they open. We showed up 35 minutes after opening (10:30am open, 11:05am we showed up) and had a nearly 40 minute wait. Those who showed up about 10 minutes after us had an even longer wait, although to be fair the wait did not seem to get too much worse by the time we left.
Second, they love spreads. Nduja (spreadable pork sausage) got used a few times, pecorino cream (creamy sheep cheese), pistachio cream, onion porcini cream (mushroom and onion cream), truffle cream, I feel like I'm missing at least one more. All are good but definitely adds a specific character to the sandwich, as much as the somewhat soft focaccia bread they use.
Third, but less dominating, they do use a lot of soft grilled veggies, especially eggplant. As is point number two, makes sandwiches potentially a bit messy to eat.
Fourth, bring a dictionary, or at least Google Translate, if you don't know all of the Italian terms; a short list:
sbriciolona = fennel seed salami
prosciutto toscano = Tuscan herbed cured ham
capicollo = whole muscle salume, dry cured (basically pork shoulder)
mortadella = large luncheon pork luncheon meat at least 15% cubed pork fat
pancetta = cured, seasoned pork belly (but not smoked)
lardo = spiced (often with rosemary), salumi from the back of a pig
salame toscana = salumi seasoned with red wine, black pepper, garlic, sea salt
prosciutto cotto = cooked ham
stracchino = soft, creamy texture cow's milk cheese
stracciatella (cheese) = stretched curd fresh cheese (soft cheese)
The end result is very good, with each sandwich being able to feed almost two people (or one person for two meals), and a bit messy with all the spreads. Get the sandwiches with cured salumes (salami is a specific type of salume that is air-dried) and loaded with green veggies (mostly arugula) for your social media photos. L'inferno (porchetta, nduja cream, grilled veggies, arugual) is tasty but not as colorful, The Smoke has the right color and photogenic qualities but is a bit smoky indeed, I forget the others we ordered. Might have to do La Dante next time, or maybe La Summer? The New Yorker sounds good too...
After sandwiches, was time for board games. Dune: Imperium remains Sue and Ophelia's game of choice lately, and while it seems like it should be lighter and shorter than, say, Terraforming Mars, it still seems to be a ~3 hour game, and advancing up the victory point tree is still something I have yet to optimize, let alone feel competitive at. Probably need to figure out a way to burn more cards as well so you can get rid of the crappy cards from earlier in the game?
Second game of the afternoon was Sea Salt and Pepper, with the Extra Salt expansion. The art is fun and stylized oragami, maybe not the most accessible. It's a little like Sushi Go, but with more ways for individual players to get extra chances to draw cards when they play cards, and more abstract/adult in artwork. Needs more playing time but feels like a solid, even a very good, game, slightly better than Sushi Go, which seems like a reasonable trade-off for its bit of extra complexity. Might need to do a side-by-side comparison with Sushi Go for an accurate rating.
Lunar New Year dinner ended up at Farmhouse Thai Kitchen, of the same chain as the location in San Francisco. Menu is good but not quite as expansive, the inside seating is much more limited but still has enough to be striking/Instagramable-- sadly the bathrooms are quite ordinary this time around. The patio dining area by comparison is much larger at the Los Angeles location, which makes sense considering how much more friendly the weather is here to year-round outdoor dining.
The food is very close to the same, with the crispy whole branzino and the Hat Yai fried chicken with blue rice and naan being particularly good. The fried chicken appetizer was probably redundant but it's hard to complain. Gai lan was also so good it almost didn't need the pork belly addition, and the crab fried rice, if not particularly standout compared to the rest, was still very tasty. About the only hang-up was parking, it's limited in the are and you may want to valet.